We believe in:

Promoting and leveraging the global, diverse and multi-cultural nature of enterprise.

Code of Ethics

The community of students, faculty and staff of Northwood University affirms this code of ethics as the behaviors that advance our shared values.

Freedom:We will exercise personal freedom while ensuring others be immune from arbitrary interference on account of condition or circumstance, ensuring that freedom will be constrained only by our responsibility for its consequences.

Respect: We will treat all others with consideration for their circumstances and with thoughtful regard for their value as human beings.

Empathy:We will endeavor to understand the feelings, thoughts and notions of others in order that compassion and fairness of our actions may result.

Spirituality:We will seek the spiritual development necessary for our happiness and growth and encourage an environment that supports this growth for all.

Honesty: We will embrace truthfulness, fairness and probity and demand the absence of fraud or deceit in ourselves and others with whom we act.

Achievement:We will exercise our skills to create high achievement and applaud the high achievement of others.

Integrity: In all our actions, we shall be guided by a code of behavior which reflects our values, unimpeded by circumstance, personal gain, public pressure or private temptation.

Responsibility: We will be accountable for the care and welfare of others and responsible for the intended and unintended consequences of our actions.

Outcomes & Attributes

Common Degree Outcomes

A university education encompasses learning through courses and co-curricular experiences. In totality, these elements allow our graduates to achieve Common Degree Outcomes. As a learning community, we promote the achievement of six outcomes which become competencies our graduates share.

Articulate and apply the principles and values of freedom and free-enterprise.

Communicate effectively in speech and writing.

Demonstrate critical thinking and problem-solving proficiency.

Demonstrate foundational knowledge of the functional areas of business.

Demonstrate acumen applied to the global business environment.

Demonstrate effective leadership and interpersonal skills.

Attributes

At Northwood, we emphasize qualitative personal development. Through purposeful programming and course offerings we develop individuals who: can explain their personal values; appreciate the aesthetic, creative and spiritual elements of life; seek lifelong education; are effective self-evaluators and action-oriented. These attributes encompass our holistic approach to developing the future leaders of a global free-enterprise society.

The Northwood Idea

Bringing the lessons of the American free-enterprise society into the college classroom.

We view a Northwood University education as an investment in your future. Any person who devotes time to a Northwood education gives up the opportunity to devote that time to all the other pursuits he or she might engage in during that time.

Political and economic freedom are of paramount importance in releasing creativity and productivity

Sacrifice – savings – is a necessary prerequisite to progress

Equality of opportunity based on contribution and inequality of reward using the same criteria are not only appropriate, but the necessary conditions, in a system not forced into conformity with some master plan

It is the differences among us that make us interesting and useful to each other

We need the freedom to fail

We must be free to bear the positive and negative consequences of our actions

In a competitive system, all who participate benefit from it

As a society we cannot gain from the establishment of legal monopolies except in a very few and constrained circumstances

An understanding and appreciation of the arts and humanities is a primary source of human enrichment in the lives of productive human beings

Education is never something that one person can do to another. It is, rather, something two people do together

We dedicate ourselves to…

The elimination of artificial barriers to equal opportunity for all human beings. Racial, religious and sexual barriers are anathema to us.

We practice…

A healthy skepticism of large and powerful government, because we think history has clearly demonstrated that such structures move rapidly from being of the people toward being over the people, and freedom is lost in the balance. Our intolerance of monolithic power is consistent across the business, labor and government spectrum.

History

On March 23, 1959, two young men with an idea, a goal and a pragmatic philosophy to encompass it all, broke away from their careers in a traditional college structure to create a new concept in education.

Their visionary idea became a reality when Dr. Arthur E. Turner and Dr. R. Gary Stauffer enrolled 100 students at Northwood Institute. They used a 19th century mansion in Alma, Michigan, as a school building, a small amount of borrowed money for operating expenses and a large amount of determination.

Northwood was created as the world was changing. The Russians had launched Sputnik and America was soon to follow. Stauffer and Turner watched the race to space. They envisioned a new type of university – one where the teaching of management led the way. While the frontiers of space were revealing their mysteries, Stauffer and Turner understood all endeavors – technical, manufacturing, marketing, retail, every type of business – needed state-of-the-art, ethics-driven management.

Time has validated the success of what these two young educators called "The Northwood Idea" – incorporating the lessons of the American free-enterprise society into the college classroom.

Dr. David E. Fry took the helm in 1982 and then Dr. Keith A. Pretty in 2006, each continuing the same ideals as Stauffer and Turner, never wavering from the core values. The University grew and matured. Academic curricula expanded; Northwood went from being an Institute to an accredited University, the DeVos Graduate School of Management was created and then expanded; the Adult Degree Program and its program centers expanded to over 20 locations in eight states; international program centers were formed in Malaysia, People's Republic of China, Sri Lanka, and Switzerland; and significant construction like the campus Student Life Centers added value to the Northwood students' experience. New endeavors such as Aftermarket Studies, entertainment and sports management and fashion merchandising, along with a campus partnership in Montreux, Switzerland, demonstrate an enriched experience for all our students.

With a clearly articulated mission to develop the future leaders of a global, free-enterprise society, Northwood University is expanding its presence in national and international venues. Professors are engaged in economic and policy dialogue; students are emerging as champions in regional and national academic competitions. At all campuses and in all divisions, Northwood University is energized and is actively pursuing dynamic programming and increased influence.

Northwood University educates managers and entrepreneurs – highly skilled and ethical leaders. With more than 35,000 alumni and a vibrant future ahead, The Northwood Idea is alive and well.

Northwood University is committed to a policy of nondiscrimination and equal opportunity for all persons regardless of race, gender, color, religion, creed, national origin or ancestry, age, marital status, disability
or veteran status. The University also is committed to compliance with all applicable laws regarding nondiscrimination. Northwood University is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and is a member of the North Central Association (800-621-7440; higherlearningcommission.org).